OH BABY: THE 1ST TRIMESTER

YAY! WE’RE PREGNANT!

As many of y’all know and have read on other blog posts of mine, we have been wanting another baby for a couple of years now. Once Clay was done with college, we got married and moved out of his moms house and into our own apartment… that was the point when we decided to start trying for baby #2! Quickly we got pregnant and I sadly had a molar pregnancy. For health reasons, the molar pregnancy forced me to avoid pregnancy for almost a full year. A year later when I was in the clear to get pregnant again… we miscarried. Then 4 months after the miscarriage we were pregnant again with this baby!! It’s been a long and tiring journey to get to this point we’re at right now. I can’t believe this pregnancy is already a third of the way over. After the previous failed pregnancies I had, I was so nervous I’d never make it out of the first trimester… but here we are!

We started trying immediately after my miscarriage in August 2019. It took about four months of tracking my cycle and ovulation but eventually we finally got another miracle baby. We found out the day after Landon’s 4th birthday… I honestly thought there was no way I was pregnant that month. We didn’t have sex within the hours I was ovulating (sorry tmi)… but yet I was pregnant? This makes me think my ovulation app wasn’t so accurate after all. I was using the app Flo for the past couple of years so I thought it must be accurate. Nope… the app must have been off on the dates by 2 or 3 days… which is a lot when you’re trying to conceive! I think with our next baby (if there is one) I would invest in the Ava Bracelet. I’ve heard nothing but good things and think that’s probably the best option to easily track your cycle.

Once I found out I was pregnant, I almost immediately became nauseas and overly exhausted. The nausea started around 6 weeks when we went to Texas for Christmas. After Christmas, my nausea and vomiting got so severe that I hardly left bed for weeks. It was the most crippling feeling in the world. Not only could I hardly take care of myself… I couldn’t be the mom I needed to be to Landon and the wife I wanted to be to Clay. That really hurt me. I felt so unlike myself and so far away from my family. I’m the type of person that wants to be completely alone when I am sick or don’t feel well. Don’t cuddle me, don’t touch me, don’t even speak to me. That may sound harsh and bitchy, but that’s just the way I am when I’m sick.

Pregnancy is supposed to bring husband and wife closer together, right?! The excitement of it all should bring so much happiness to our lives… which it did… but it was also hard to smile through the sickness. Every day felt like one of the worst days. I know that’s dramatic and you may think I’m exaggerating… but I promise I’m not! I was throwing up all day and all through the night. I was awake most nights sitting by the toilet as my head spun with nausea. I had migraines every other day and was so exhausted I felt like I could pass out at any moment. I wasn’t myself and the sickness pulled out so much sadness inside me which totally wrecked me. It’s not that I wasn’t excited for a baby… I was BEYOND EXCITED. I still pray every day that this baby is healthy and the pregnancy goes well. All I’m saying is when I was super sick and my hormones were surging … it affected my mental health big time. I’m not sure if I’m the only woman who had these feeling during the 1st trimester.. I would like to think I’m not alone here. There must be other women feeling these same emotions right? Although pregnancy is such a beautiful and wonderful thing… it can make you feel sad and out of sorts. Not every pregnancy is rainbows and sunshine and I really did not understand that having had a fairly easy pregnancy with Landon. That just goes to show that each and every pregnancy can be totally different!

We do not know the gender yet, but will find out soon. I have a strong feeling it’s a girl since I’ve been so sick. Plus my face is breaking out like a teenager, whereas I had perfect skin during Landon’s pregnancy. I’ve also been craving fruit, candy and anything sweet! All of these signs are just old wives tales but I’m rolling with it! We’ll just have to wait and see what the results are next week. Either way, it won’t matter to me! I just want a healthy pregnancy and baby.

Things I did for my nausea:

Asked my doctor for help! She prescribed me a medication that was basically Vitamin B6 and Unisom combined. Although we went to pick it up and the total was $700. What. The. Fuck? Who has that kind of money? So we said screw it and I looked at other options. You can buy the two vitamins separately otc but I opted against it.

Tummy drops, the peppermint flavor: LOVE these. The peppermint settled my stomach and I think they also have B6 in them? I ate like 10 a day. Got them off amazon. Also tried the ginger flavor but hated it.

Sea bands: These are two tight wrist bands that focus on pressure points in your wrists. These pressure points apparently help nausea during pregnancy. It’s basically a placebo effect since there’s no medicine involved. I wore them for about 2 weeks. They kind of helped but not really. I was desperate so I was willing to try anything. They’re only like $10 so not a total waste I guess?

Ginger ale and Gatorade. Basically kept these two on tap at all hours of the day.

I tried to not allow my stomach to get too empty. That’s when the nausea was the worst. So I kept saltines, ritz crackers, granola bars, goldfish and pretzels on my nightstand 24/7. I snacked on these all day and all through the night.

I’ve basically been trying to eat foods that sound good to me in the moment. Which has been super difficult considering I’ve had food aversions to pretty much everything. My cravings changed almost every hour. Chicken would sound good to me at noon and then would make me want to vomit by dinner time. Listening to my body was key.

I avoided the internet, food shows and any platform that had pictures of food on it. Lol pictures of some food were a trigger for me and instantly made me nauseas. It’s been rough y’all lol.

Thank God I’m through the first trimester and onto the second!! But WOW those first 12 weeks were something else. It’s week 13 and my nausea has lessened some and I’m feeling a little bit more like myself. I can finally love on Landon and Clay the way they deserve. I also hope I can get back to working on my blog a little bit more because I really have missed it so much!

One last thought: I’d like to give a huge round of applause to my husband who has been running errands, folding laundry, picking up food and being mom and dad to Landon when I couldn’t. He’s really been so patient and kind even when I’ve been a bitchy and sick. Love ya babe 😉